GOD, fitting on his throne, fees Satan flying towards this world, then newly created; fhews him to the Son, who fat at his right hand; foretels the fuccefs of Satan in perverting mankind; clears his own justice and wif dom from all imputation, having created man free, and able enough to have withflood his tempter; yet declares his purpose of grace towards him, in regard he fell not of his own malice, as did Satan, but by him feduced. The Son of God renders praises to his Father for the manifeftation of his gracious purpofe towards man: but God again declares, that grace cannot be extended towards man without the fatisfaction of divine juftice. Man hath offended the majesty of God, by afpiring to Godhead; and therefore, with all his progeny, devoted to death, muft die, unless fome one can be found fufficient to answer for his offence, and undergo his punishment. The Son of God freely offers himself a ransom for man: the Father accepts him,-ordains his incarnation, pronounces his exaltation above all names in heaven and earth: commands all the angels to adore him : they obey; and hymning to their harps in full choir, celebrate the Father and the Son. Meanwhile Satan alights upon the bare convex of this world's outermost orb; where wandering he firft finds a place, fince called The Limbo of Vanity: what perfons and things fly up thither; thence comes to the gate of heaven, defcribed afcending by ftairs, and the waters above the firmament that flow about it: his passage thence to the orb of the Jun; he finds there Uriel, the regent of that orb, but frft changes himself into the fhape of a meaner angel; and pretending a zealous defire to behold the new creation, and man, whom God had placed here, inquires of him the place of his habitation, and is directed: alights firft on mount Niphates.

PARADISE LOST.

BOOK III.

Hor of the Eternal co-eternal beam!

AIL, holy light, offspring of heav'n firft-born,*

May I exprefs thee' unblam'd? fince God is light
And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from eternity; dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright effence increate.
Or hear'st thou rather pure ethereal stream,
Whofe fountain who fhall tell? Before the fun,
Before the heav'ns thou wert, and at the voice
Of God, as with a mantle didft invest
The rifing world of waters dark and deep,
Won from the void and formlefs infinite.
Thee I revifit now with bolder wing,

Efcap'd the Stygian pool, though long detain'd
In that obfcure fojourn; while in my flight
Through utter and through middle darknefs borne,
With other notes than to th' Orphean lyre,

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L. I. Hail, holy light, &c.] Our author's addrefs to light, and lamentation of his own blindness, may perhaps be cenfured as an excrefcence or digreffion not agreeable to the rules of epick poetry ; but yet this is fo charming a part of the poem, that the most critical reader, I imagine, cannot wish it were omitted. One is even pleased with a fault, if it be a fault that is the occafion of fo many beauties, and acquaints us fo much with the circumstances and character of the author. Newton.

L. 17. With other notes than to th' Orphean lyre, &c.] Orpheus made a hymn to night, which is ftill extant; he also wrote of the creation out of chaos. See Apoll. Rhodius, I. 493. Orpheus was infpired by his mother Calliope only, Milton by the heaven

I fung of Chaos and eternal Night;
Taught by the heav'nly Muse to venture down
The dark defcent, and up to re-afcend,
Though hard and rare. Thee I revifit safe,
And feel thy fov'reign vital amp; but thou
Revifit'ft not these eyes, that roll in vain
To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn ;
So thick a drop ferene hath quench'd their orbs,
Or dim fuffufion veil'd. Yet not the more
Ceafe I to wander, where the Mufes haunt
Clear spring, or fhady grove, or funny hill,
Smit with the love of facred fong; but chief
Thee, Sion, and the flow'ry brooks beneath,
That wash thy hallow'd feet, and warbling flow,
Nightly I vifit: nor fometimes forget

Those other two equall'd with me in fate,
So were I equall'd with them in renown,
Blind Thamyris, and blind Meonides ;
And Tirefias, and Phineus, prophets old:

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Mufe; therefore he boasts he fung with other notes than Orpheus,
though the fubjects were the fame. Richardjon.

L. 29. Smit with the love of facred song.] So Virg. Geor. ii. 475.
Dulces ante omnia Mufe,

Quarum facra foro ingenti percuffus amore.

L. 35. Thamyris.] Lat. Gr. i. e. wonderful. A poet of Thrace, who had the vanity to contend with the mufes in finging, but loft it; therefore they put out his eyes, and took away his harp. This fable teaches us the danger and vanity of mecking God, of felf-fufficiency and pride.

Ibid. Meonides.] Lat. Gr. i. e. the fan of Meon, for Homer, Gr. i. e. one that doth not fee; because he defpifed the vanities of the world, not that he was really deprived of his eye-fight; others fay his blindnefs came by an accident: but his proper name. was Melifegenes, from the river Meles, where he was born. He was fo poor that he begged his bread; yet when he was dead, feven cities contended for the honour of his nativity, Smyrna, Rhodes, Colophon, Salamis, Chios, Argos, Athene.

L 36. Tirefias.] Lat. Gr. i. e. a ftar; because he foretold fome things by the knowledge of aftrology. A blind poet and foothfayer of Thebes, long before Homer; the fon of Evetrus and Charicio. He was ftruck blind either for peeping too curiously upon Minerva in the fountain Hypocrine, or for deciding the